


Out of Time

by Unfeathered



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Double Drabble, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-23
Updated: 2020-04-23
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:29:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23801605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unfeathered/pseuds/Unfeathered
Summary: Jack reflects on mortality
Relationships: Jack Harkness & John Ellis
Kudos: 10





	Out of Time

**Author's Note:**

> So, I got to _Out of Time_ in my season 1 re-watch last night...

He sits beside John long after he's dead, holding his hand, and maybe the fumes have got to him too because he finds himself playing imaginary scenes of his return to the Hub in his head.

_"Have a good Christmas, Jack?_

_"Yeah, fantastic. I spent it sitting beside a man I'd hoped could become a good friend while he asphyxiated from car fumes."_

Except he can't tell them. Not just because they don't know he can't die, except Gwen, but because they wouldn't _understand_. That's why getting to know John was so exciting, because he thought he'd finally found someone he could _talk_ to. Someone who understood, in his gut, what it felt like to be ripped away from everything you knew and loved, and stranded in a completely different time, with no hope of ever seeing anyone again or of fitting in properly here. A man out of time, having to change his name and start over, when all he really wanted was go home.

He sits beside John and he cries, for the man who can't die, and the man who can.

* * *

"Have a good Christmas, Jack?"

"Heard from John?"

"Yeah. He… worked things out. He's happier now."


End file.
